REMEMBRANCE of the dead is human. It is very human for a sincere
relative to have a strong remembrance of a beloved person who has died.
It is not easy, or natural, for a son to forget his father if he really
had a filial love and gratitude for him, and the remembrance of his
mother is undoubtedly even more tender and reverent. But is the remembrance
of a believer sincere without invoking the grace of God? Without exercising
his faith in Jesus Christ and His ever-living Church? Without praying to
Him for the soul of his beloved, one, who is now a member of the triumphant
Church, as he prayed for him when he was a member of the Church on earth?

In the eyes of the Christian and his belief in Jesus Christ, Who is the
Head of both, there is no difference between the Church on earth and that
in Heaven. To cease praying for him, if he really prayed for him when his
beloved one was on earth, is an unnatural way of thinking and a perversion
of reason. Only by erroneous presupposition, or cynicism, will a person
force himself to apathy. It is, then, in keeping with the nature of,the
faithful and his belief, as well as in keeping with the teaching of
Jesus Christ and His Church, to pray to Almighty God for the souls of our
beloved relatives and friends.

The Church has developed this human reaction and this divine teaching and
has established, first, the teaching of the truth of the everliving soul
and its judgment and, secondly, prayers and services pertaining to the
burial of the dead and his life hereafter. It is an expression of gratitude
for a Christian believer to remember the Apostle Paul, by whose efforts and
martyrdom he receives his faith which is so dear and precious to him. To
remember him, however, without referring to Almighty God in his prayers,
the Christian believer misunderstands both the person and message of the
Apostle Paul. For a Christian, the memory of a beloved person has a value
only when he refers to God Almighty in a humble and faithful prayer;
otherwise it is the ordinary expression of an un-illuminated heart. In such
cases there is no difference between a "Christian" and an atheist. The
Christian is called on to pray constantly and to give alms in the Name of
the Lord at all times but especially when he remembers his beloved departed
persons; by doing so he will hear the angel's voice as the centurion
Cornelius heard, that, "Thy prayers and thy alms are come up for a memorial
before God." (Acts 10:4)